Last night President Obama made what was touted by much of the media as a major address to Congress and the American people on healthcare. I’m not going to write a lengthy response to the speech because first, there was really nothing new in it, and secondly, he did not address the Constitutional issues. In fact, most of the health care bill supporters are running like mad from having to respond to questions from Americans on those issues.

            Instead, they take the arrogant and elitist approach that the President took last night; accusing all who oppose the enlightened paternalism of the left of either being evil or just too dumb to know that we have to be taken care of by “Big Brother”. In other words, there was little in the speech that I have not already addressed in my previous articles posted here.

            There is one issue that I need to address however, since not only have the President and members of Congress been making a point of it, but I have received several e-mails asking me about it. That is the question of whether illegal immigrants will get medical care under the provisions of HR 3200. My answer is clearly yes. This is disputed by those who point to Section 246 of the bill that is titled: “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens”.

            That seems clear enough, but what does it really say in the section. There is only one sentence in the section and it states:

“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

All that says is that affordability credits to help them get insurance are not available to illegals. It does not say that they can’t participate in the overall program and get reduced cost insurance under the so-called “public option”.  Nor is there anything in the bill that requires someone to verify their citizenship to get benefits from the Insurance Exchange in the program. Any enforcement provisions were specifically excluded in the House Committee. The bill also doesn’t limit the care currently being provided for free at emergency rooms and government clinics. You can read this section and the rest of the bill for yourself by going to the following link: http://thomas.loc.gov/

The access of illegal aliens to the system has been verified by a recent report released by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. This service works for Congress and the report was released days before President Obama made his speech, yet he continued to deny that illegals will get coverage. There is also a movement among some members of Congress to grant illegal immigrants full rights to participate in all government programs including Social Security, even if they have never paid a penny into the system.

            Is it Constitutional to require American taxpayers to pay for medical coverage of those who have broken our country’s laws by sneaking across our borders? Nobody in the Obama Administration seems to care.